News on Land

Abundant downpours during the rainy season bring deadly floods every year but officials are increasingly worried about another trend: diminishing water reserves

FREETOWN, Aug 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Half the year, Iyatunde Kamara worries torrential rains will wash her house off its hillside and into the rivers of waste that flow through Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.

The other half, she rarely has enough water to fill a pot.

After unsuccessfully trying for more than 22 years to lay claim to a portion of SA’s most expensive and prestigious school, labour tenants from the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands are one step closer to becoming land owners. 

The constitutional court on Tuesday ordered the reinstatement of a land claims court (LCC) order to appoint a special master to oversee claims by families who laboured on farms in lieu of payments and permission to live on a portion of the farm.

The unending, sometimes deadly clashes involving Keta Lagoon indigenes and Seven Seas Salt Company located at Adina, in the Ketu South Municipality, has attracted international attention.

The University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa, is currently hosting a short course on “The Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa”, here in Ghana, the Keta Lagoon debacle forming the case study.

Mansa, Punjab, India - With a scarf around her head and a bottle of cold water in her backpack, Kiranjit Kaur goes door to door as the sun beats down on Kotra Kalan village, calling on women to join an upcoming meeting about farmer suicides.

Two years ago she set up the Kisan Mazdoor Khudkushi Peedit Parivar Committee, an organisation to support families of suicide victims, bringing together widows and relatives of impoverished farmers who - struggling with crippling debt - killed themselves in Punjab, the breadbasket of India.

Since his inauguration earlier this year, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro continues to make headlines with controversial policy reforms. After loosening protection of Indigenous and conservation lands, the BBC reports deforestation in the Amazon is accelerating with an area the size of one soccer field being cleared every minute.

This month, the world’s leading climate scientists issued a report on land confirming what we already know: forests are a critical weapon in the battle against climate change. Yet as competition for land mounts, the destruction of forests for agriculture, mining, and infrastructure rages on.

According to reports from the organization Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), the indigenous communities of the Miskitu ethnic group, from Nicaragua, could be on the verge of extinction because they are in a serious situation of abandonment and vulnerability because of the constant invasion of their territories.

Panelists call for legal recognition for Indigenous peoples and local communities

This topic will be discussed at the Global Landscapes Forum New York 2019. Learn more about how to join here.

While a recent report by two civil society groups in Cambodia outlining predatory practices by local microfinance institutions (MFIs) may not paint the clearest picture of the sector, there is no denying that there are murky waters ahead.

Abraham Domico’s assassination comes a few days after the murder of two guards on the hands of irregular groups linked to drug trafficking.

The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) confirmed Wednesday the assassination of another indigenous leader in the department of Antioquia, located in the central northwestern part of the country.

Developing the tools or methods for securing land rights for all, especially for the youth and women, is a primary objective of responsible land management and land administration. Understanding the challenges women and youths face (and possible ways of resolving these challenges) in their quest to access, use and secure land resources, is vital for knowledge building for achieving tenure security for all. However, a broad knowledge gap exists on the land–women–youth–policy nexus of land management study and practice.